The first week of school was packed full of new
experiences in Granny's Gardens. It was a opportunity for students to visit
their new gardens and to take inventory of what was growing there.
Community was one of the lessons to be learned. "We are all part of
a community and the students who had this garden last year, planted
the gardens in the spring so you would have produce for your fall harvest."
said the garden coordinator.
After a short discussion about garden etiquette
and safety, students spent time investigating what was growing in their
gardens.
Each student was assigned a section of the garden
that would be their responsibility for the remainder of the school
year and wrote her name on the edge of the garden box with black sharpie
marker. Her name will have faded away by next September.
Then the fun began! The kids love searching
for potatoes! They held their finds proudly.
Some were large, some were small and some
had funny shapes - and they came in different colors; red, white and even
purple!
After pulling weeds from our garden, we headed
to the potato washing station where we scrubbed the dirt off of the potatoes.
"Gently, now. The skin on
freshly dug potatoes is very tender."
Then it was off to the weighing station where
we compared large and small then weighed our largest potato.
On the way, we say some amazing sights, including
lots of sunflowers. This one was not completely open yet but
it was loaded with pollinating insects.
We delivered our freshly scrubbed potatoes to
the cooking station where Granny's helpers cooked the potatoes on the grill.
Here was another lesson in community. The potatoes we tasted were
harvested by an earlier class and the ones we harvested would be prepared
for a later class to taste.
Then it was time for our first class photos.
"Don't judge each day by the
harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant." Robert Louis Stevenson
